No More Owed Outtakes
by Enna Energe
Summary: Outtakes and future-takes from "No More Owed." Mostly Peeta POV, but other POVs to be included as well.
1. Chapter 1

Glimpses of Peeta, Before

When Peeta was 12, Gale Hawthorne became his hero. Hawthorne was only 14, but word had it that the boy had been caught behind the slag heap with Vesper Beech, the prettiest, curviest girl in the whole school, who just happened to be Hawthorne's senior by two years.

Peeta watched as other kids tried to get details from the boy, but he shrugged them off with a roll of his eyes and a crooked smile. Apparently, Hawthorne didn't kiss and tell. He was probably too serious for that. His father had died about half a year ago, and at 14 he was already supporting his whole family.

Peeta wished he was as tall and strong as Hawthorne. Maybe then Katniss would notice him. Or maybe he'd have the courage to actually speak to her.

Peeta came close to talking with her a couple months before. He saw the girl outside the bakery, looking frighteningly skinny and tired. His mother yelled at her – something derogatory about Seam brats going through her trash – and she hadn't defended herself with her typical sharp reply. She hadn't even blinked. She just made her way behind the pig pen and slid down against the trunk of a tree. And stayed there.

Peeta was never so frightened in his whole life.

He knew she needed food, and he knew there was no way to sneak her anything with his mother watching. He wished desperately that his father had been on shift instead of his mother.

"Peeta! Stop daydreaming and take those loaves out of the oven," his mother snapped.

The idea came to him suddenly, and he titled his wrist allowing both loaves to slide off the paddle into the fire. He grabbed the bread quickly, but both were already blackened.

He knew it was coming.

"You clumsy idiot!" his mother had cried before the rolling pin smacked into his temple, painfully knocking him to the ground. "You've ruined those loaves! No one is going to buy burnt bread. You might as well just feed them to the pigs."

He nodded and forced himself to fight through the dizziness he felt when he tried to stand. He had to get outside before she left.

He stepped out the back door with the burnt loaves in his arms. From the corner of his eyes he saw her still sitting against that tree, watching him. He slowly broke the burnt pieces off the bread and tossed them to the pigs, until he was sure his mother was no longer watching.

He wanted to walk over to her, to talk to her, but wasn't sure he could risk it. Instead of handing her the bread, he just threw it at her feet at ran inside. He hadn't even looked directly at her; he hoped she got it.

He saw her the next day at school and, again, he almost spoke to her. He wanted her to know how sorry he was that her father died in that mining accident. He wanted to apologize for his mother and for just throwing her the bread instead of handing it to her. He wanted to tell her that if she needed anything, she could come to him.

But he looked away when she caught his eye and cursed himself for his cowardice all the way home.

* * *

"Wake up, Peeta."

A pillow flew and hit him in the head.

"Huh? What?" he called sleepily. Why had he been woken up? He had just been in the middle of a very nice dream.

"You were humping the bed and moaning some girl's name," said Oates flatly.

"Who's Katniss anyway?" asked Rye.

"No one," muttered Peeta, blushing furiously.

He hated sharing a room with his brothers.

* * *

Peeta watched wistfully as Katniss waited for her sister by the picket fence outside school. She had a way of waiting – a stillness about her – that he had never seen anyone replicate.

As she was staring seriously across the school yard, Hawthorne snuck up behind her. He said something to her and tugged on her long braid.

Peeta had been prepared to see her turn around and punch him. Or, at the very least, present him with one of her infamous death glares.

Instead, she had smiled at him. _Smiled_. Katniss never smiled.

Then, when her little sister arrived, they all walked home. _Together_.

Peeta fought down the panic that rose quickly in his chest. Gale Hawthorne and Katniss? How could he compete with Gale Hawthorne?

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe they were just friends. Or cousins. They did sort of look alike.

Nevertheless, he decided he no longer liked Gale Hawthorne.

* * *

"What's on your mind, Peeta?" his father asked gently. The two were working to ice a large order of cookies, and Peeta had been uncharacteristically quiet.

He sighed – perhaps a bit dramatically.

"There's this girl," he began. "She's…" Amazing. Different. Special. Mysterious. He didn't have the right word to describe the enigma that was Katniss Everdeen, but his father read his intent perfectly on his face and smiled. "But I think she likes someone else," he finished miserably.

His father patted him sympathetically on the back.

"Have you tried telling her how you feel?"

Peeta shook her head. "What's the point? I know she doesn't feel the same way about me."

"It's worth a try, Peeta. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't try."

Something in the lines around his father's eyes told Peeta that he was speaking from personal experience.

* * *

Peeta was relaxing with his friends after school in the meadow after a particularly competitive soccer game. The conversation soon turned, as it often did among 15 year old boys, to girls.

Just as Denny was telling them about how he had fingered Jada Steffens behind the slag heap last Saturday, Katniss passed by. She was holding her little sister's hand while she smiled down at her. Her face really lit up when she smiled. Peeta repressed a wistful sigh. He only wished she smiled more often.

Apparently, he wasn't as subtle in checking her out as he had hoped. Jacob elbowed him in the side. "Looks like someone's tastes run a little on the dark side. Katniss Everdeen, Peeta?"

Peeta tried to shrug casually. "She's nice to look at. I'd be interested in getting to know her better."

"Yeah, and you know what they say about Seam girls," added Mica. "They're _very_ talented." He gestured obscenely with his hand and mouth. "I'd be interested in 'getting to know her better' too."

"Get real," chuckled Jacob, rolling his eyes. "Katniss Everdeen would sooner cut off your dick than suck it."

"I don't know," replied Mica slyly. "She looked kind of hungry to me. I bet there's a _lot_ she's willing to do to put food on her table."

Peeta opened his mouth to tell Mica to shut up, but suddenly Mica was lifted off the ground. There was a crunch of bone against fist and his body flew several feet away. Standing in the middle of their group was an obviously enraged Gale Hawthorne. Somehow, the older boy had advanced upon them silently. Peeta wondered how much he had heard. It was obviously enough.

The rest of the group stared at him, frightening into noiseless stillness.

"If I see any of you even _look_ at that girl again, I'll drag you beyond the fence and gut you. Do you understand me?"

Peeta wanted to scream that _he_ hadn't disrespected Katniss, that he would never say anything like that about her. But he just nodded silently along with the rest of his friends.

* * *

She was there, at his father's funeral. He knew it. He could feel the back of his neck tingling as it always did when she was around. She was probably here with her sister. Maybe even Gale Hawthorne. But he couldn't look at her. He couldn't find the strength to tear his eyes away from his father's casket.

His father had been the heart and soul of the bakery. The only one who could reign in his mother. The only one he could talk to.

And now he was gone. Gone.

What was going to happen to him now?


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This took a lot longer to write than I imagined. I think it was a bit harder for me to write in Gale's voice than in Katniss's or Peeta's. Those with sensitive ears, please be forewarned. Gale has a tiny bit of a potty mouth. **

* * *

Gale Realizes

Gale Hawthorne never had a problem getting women. Since he was 14, they've basically been throwing themselves at him – and not just the girls in school. There are plenty of seemingly unfulfilled housewives along his route who answer his loud knock with hooded eyes and in various states of undress. The housewives might even be his favorite, not because they are always ready to go, though they are, but because they know the deal and even appreciate it.

Gale doesn't do relationships. He doesn't need yet another person relying on him.

* * *

Gale's always been popular, with the guys as well as girls, but most of his friendships are fairly superficial. He can laugh with his friends and talk about school or sports or girls, but he doesn't talk about things that matter, like his family or the threat of reaping or the time he spends beyond the fence. You never know who might say something to the wrong person.

The only real relationships he has outside his family are with Katniss, his hunting partner, and Thom, who's been Gale's friend and neighbor for as long as he can remember. None of them are in the same grade – Thom is one year older and Katniss two years younger – so they never spend much time together in school, but Gale feels linked to both by something more than convenience.

All three of them lost their fathers to the same mining accident. All three know what it means to suffer and to survive. With Katniss and Thom, Gale doesn't need to appear cool or funny or aloof. With them, he can be himself. He can rant about the Capitol and working conditions in the mines and the inequalities between those in town and those in the Seam.

He trusts them with his secrets. He trusts them with his life.

It wasn't always that way, at least not with Katniss. It takes him a while to warm up to her.

She is 12 when they first meet, but so small and scrawny that he thought she was 10. He is sure she is trying to steal game from his snares, but when she pulls out a bow he realizes he had underestimated her.

It isn't the last time he would underestimate Katniss Everdeen.

She offers to trade him a bow for knowledge about snares. It seems like a good deal to him.

Slowly, that deal turns into a partnership. Together they face angry badgers, packs of wild dogs, and one very pissed off black bear. They share knowledge of hunting grounds and edible plants. Eventually, they begin to split up their take at the end of the day according to need, not who shot what. When one of them is sick and can't make it out to the woods, the other still sends meat to their family.

He realizes that Katniss relies on him now, that he's become an important part of her providing for her family. He thinks this should probably scare him, but he finds he doesn't mind if Katniss relies on him; he wants her to. Because he knows she has his back too.

* * *

As soon as they are no longer eligible for the reaping, Thom asks Kala to marry him. Kala is a nice girl with big gray eyes and shiny black hair that reaches down to the middle of her back, but Gale doesn't see the appeal. She doesn't have any special skills or any plans to take up a profession. He can't understand why Thom would choose to tie himself down, would choose to add another burden to his already difficult life.

So after they've both had a few drinks in them, he asks.

Thom gives him a strange look, as if the answer should be obvious.

"Because I love her. Because I want her to be my family. Isn't that the kind of thing you want someday, too?"

Gale shakes his head. He supposes he's more like Katniss, who vows she's never getting married or having kids.

"Better you than me, man."

* * *

Her transformation from scrawny child to pretty girl happens so gradually that Gale is oblivious to it until he overhears those boys talking about her. It's not much worse than the conversations he and his friends have about other girls and he wants to ignore it, but when the sandy-haired boy implies he could get Katniss to suck his dick in exchange for food, he loses control of the anger coursing through him. Before he even knows what he's doing, he's lifted the boy off the ground and slugged him in the face. He turns to the rest of the boys, who just sit there and stare at him with wide eyes.

"If I see any of you even _look_ at that girl again, I'll drag you beyond the fence and gut you. Do you understand me?"

The boys nod, looking scared shitless. As well they should be.

He doesn't tell Katniss about the incident. He doesn't think she'd be upset, not really. She's never cared much when others run their mouths. But he knows she wouldn't appreciate him getting into a fight over it, and he doesn't want her to read too much into it.

She's his partner. He has her back. That's it.

But every time he sees that sandy-haired boy with the black eye walk down the hallway and avoid his eye, he smiles to himself.

* * *

They are at the Hob when it happens. He is standing right next to Katniss as Darius jokes with her about trading game for kisses. The redheaded Peacekeeper reaches up and pulls on her braid. She rolls her eyes before she smiles indulgently at him.

And it hits him like a punch to the stomach. It's so foreign a feeling that it's not even immediately clear to him what it is, but it's strong and unpleasant and feels similar to anger.

Jealousy.

When he is asleep that night in his own bed, he thinks about what this means. Katniss isn't just some disposable fuck. They are partners; he can't screw this up. What sort of a future does he imagine for them?

And before he can stop himself, he sees it. He sees himself married to Katniss. He sees her smiling with him as they bring down a buck and laughing as he grabs her and nibbles at her ear. He sees her glowing and swollen with his child.

The vision takes his breath away.

He wonders if maybe one day, if there ever comes a day when their families no longer need their support, they could slip into the woods and leave behind the coal dust and the Peacekeepers and the control of the Capitol. Maybe it could be just him and just her.

They could do it, he knows. Together, they could do anything.

Gale knows that Katniss is not ready for his realization. She trusts him, she cares for him, but the very idea of love is distasteful to her.

But because he is gifted with the instincts of a true hunter, he feels confident he can win her over. They already have a strong connection. He'll bide his time and wait for his infamous Hawthorne charm to work on her hormones. She may be Katniss Everdeen, but she's still a girl. Eventually, she'll come to the same realization he has.

It won't be easy and it won't be quick, but Gale is convinced it will be worth it.

Katniss is a girl worth waiting for.

* * *

If he's honest with himself, Gale never considers that he'd have any real competition for her affections. It wasn't because he didn't realize Katniss has other admirers. She may be serious and prickly, but she's also attractive, strong, and self-sufficient and he knows there are probably tons of guys who would love to take her out behind the slag heap. Maybe even a few who imagine taming her wild ways. Or being tamed by her. But Katniss is a fortress with her affections, and he can't imagine her letting anyone but himself get behind her defenses.

At first, Gale considers the blond baker boy to be just one of those admirers. He's seen him sniffing around Katniss before, but he always seemed like the type that would just be content to admire from afar. And maybe he would, if Katniss wasn't reaching out to him.

He notices her eyes on him at his father's funeral. And then she finds him in the woods and prevents him from eating nightlock. And maybe both of those things aren't so odd, but now he hears that she and that mayor's daughter are eating lunch with the boy.

It's enough out of the ordinary that even the seniors are talking about it. Most people assume there must be something between the boy and the mayor's daughter, but a few guys joke with Gale about the merchant moving in on his girl.

Gale just forces a laugh and rolls his eyes.

But he is worried. Because Gale knows Katniss isn't friendly or polite; she isn't motived by pity; she hates changes to her routine. So if she invites someone to sit with her at lunch, it's not a casual act; there was something about this boy. He means something to her. And Gale has no idea what that could be.

When he confronts her about sitting with the boy at lunch and the rumors it was causing, she actually laughs and makes a sarcastic comment about sneaking out to visit the slag heap with him. (Gale is a bit shocked to realize Katniss even knew about the slag heap.) Whatever interest she has in the boy, at least it's not romantic.

When he vaguely mentions upholding her reputation, she actually snorts, and Gale is a little dismayed that he finds that sound adorable.

"You don't have to worry about me, Gale. I have no interest in Peeta. Or any other boy. You know that."

Yeah, he's well aware. But he doesn't like this situation. Not at all.

* * *

He decides to take matters into his own hands and seek the boy out. He waits for him outside the schoolhouse. When the blond boy finally does exit, he doesn't notice Gale standing casually against the wall.

Gale takes the opportunity to examine the boy up close. He looks haggard and thin. His blue eyes appear tired and are underlined with bruises. His appearance is partially reassuring to Gale; he knows this isn't a beauty contest, but it helps to know he has a leg up on the competition.

"I heard you were eating lunch at a new table," says Gale loudly in lieu of a greeting.

When the boy hears Gale, he seizes up. He turns to face Gale tentatively and his eyes are saucer-wide with fear, as if he knows he's already done something wrong. Gale doesn't like that, even if he appreciates the fear. Fear should help keep the boy in line.

Gale begins to stalk toward the boy slowly.

"People talk when a merchant boy and a Seam girl start spending time together. They make assumptions about what that boy could possibly be after. Assumptions that could get someone hurt."

He leans in so that he's practically in the boy's face. He knows his extra inches in height will make him appear especially threatening.

"We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now, would we?"

He waits until the boy blinks and shakes his head slowly.

"I would never –"

"Good," he interrupts. "I'm glad we understand each other."

* * *

He thinks that should be all it takes to scare the boy off, and yet the next time he hears about him, Katniss is saying that the boy has moved in with her family.

He can't help cursing. Inviting the boy to live with her is beyond extreme. It shows a level of trust and empathy and a willingness to take responsibility for another person that Gale didn't believe her capable of. Something is going on, and he pushed her to explain what it is.

Finally, she explains. She owes the boy for bread. Bread. Yes, it was bread that kept her and her family alive after her father had died, before Gale had ever met her, but, still – bread.

Gale understands about owing, and he can see why Katniss would try to do what she could to help the boy. He trusts her intentions are pure.

But he doesn't trust the boy. Already she feels that she owes him. She seems to like him. She even trusts him with Prim. What would happen now that they are forced into close quarters? What if those hormones Gale is counting on kick in at the wrong time?

But Gale wasn't one to just sit back and watch his plans fall apart. No, he resolves to step up his game.

His first step involves putting an end to the other women. Because his original plan to win over Katniss spanned years and because there had never been any emotional connection between him and his dalliances, he had seen no point to cutting himself off from sex.

But no longer.

Being tight-lipped about his conquests doesn't stop people from talking and he doesn't want any rumors making their way to Katniss's ears. Not now and especially not through the mouth of the bread boy. To free himself of temptation, he gives the rest of his condom stash to Rory, who's probably a little too grateful to receive it.

His second step involves reminding Katniss about the connection they share. They are more than just hunting partners, they are best friends. No one but Prim can make her smile more. No one knows her better than he does. Their families were practically one; one day, he vows, they will be one.

So he would be supportive in this crazy scheme to save the boy.

And this dove-tailed nicely with the third step of his plan: get to know Peeta Mellark. He wants to know who the boy is and what draws him to Katniss. He wants to understand why the Everdeens think so highly of him. And he wants to know if there's anything he can use it against him.

Know thy enemy, indeed.


End file.
